US federal prosecutors have charged dozens of people in a years-old $25m scheme to help wealthy Americans buy their children’s way into elite universities.

This is about Yale, Georgetown and Stanford, or the University of Southern California. Clients included chief executives and Hollywood actors. Thirty-three parents, including Hollywood actors Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin were charged. Prosecutors in Boston charged William “Rick” Singer, 58, with running the racketeering scheme through his Edge College & Career Network, which served a roster of clients. They said Singer’s operation arranged for fake testers to take college admissions exams in place of his clients’ children, and in some cases arranged for applicants to be listed as recruited athletes even if they had no athletic ability. Athletic coaches from Yale, Stanford, USC, Wake Forest and Georgetown, among others, are implicated.

Parents generally paid Singer between $15,000 and $75,000 per single test. He has paid part of money to tests administrators. As one example of the scam, admission of an applicant to Yale was in exchange for a payment of $1.2 million. The Yale applicant was falsely described as the co-captain of a prominent club soccer team in southern California. Singer is charged with racketeering, money laundering and obstruction of justice, according to court papers.